SCVNGR is leveraging the Google Places database to power the international expansion of its newly improved iPhone and Android () apps. The startup is the first to publicly launch with the Google Places API, which is currently limited to select parties as a developer preview.

The decision to piggyback on Google’s () comprehensive place database was a necessary one, especially considering the startup does not have its own proprietary database for places — like Foursquare (), for instance. It has, instead, been using Twitter-owned GeoAPI for U.S. place data. SCVNGR will solely use the Google Places API moving forward.